THE VERDICT Your fantastic 12-page pullout
The heat is on for an Irish camp in crisis, but Enda is out to stake a claim
RONAN CURTIS is poised for his senior Ireland debut against Poland tomorrow night after manager Martin O’Neill widened his search for a striker with an eye for goal.
In-form Portsmouth attacker Curtis, 22, was drafted into the senior squad yesterday, just 48 hours after scoring his first goal for the Ireland Under 21s against Kosovo.
Curtis shipped a caution in Mitrovica which ruled him out of tomorrow’s Euro U21 qualifier against Germany but his annoyance at missing that game has been countered by a senior callup instead.
With five goals in seven games, London-born Curtis has landed running at Pompey since his £100,000 move from Derry City last May.
At the Brandywell, Curtis chalked up 24 goals in 100 appearances.
With veteran Jon Walters rested after his exertions in Cardiff, and the likes of Shane Long, Sean Maguire and Scott Hogan injured, O’Neill has four inexperienced forwards on duty in Poland — Curtis, Callum Robinson, Graham Burke and Alan O’Brien.
Between them, they have won just three caps.
That O’Neill has dipped his recruitment net into League One waters indicates how desperate he is to find a solution to Ireland’s goal-scoring issues.
In the last 15 internationals, Ireland have drawn a blank six times and scored two goals or more on just three occasions.
‘In my five years here, I’ve lacked a goalscoring centre-forward. And that does become a bit of a problem,’ acknowledged O’Neill.
‘When I came in, I had an old Robbie Keane. Robbie wasn’t
IF it’s a friendly international for the Republic of Ireland it must be Poland. It invariably is.
The return to Wroclaw, formerly the German city of Breslau, marks the 14th visit to Polish soil by Ireland.
Of the previous stopovers, only two were for competitive games, in the 1992 Euro qualifiers, and 2016 World Cup.
All the others were arranged by the FAI with a curious zeal, with seven friendly trips between 1964 and 1981. Had we no other homes to go too?
Irish fans, and players too, with long memories may recall those regular peace-time visits to Cracow, Katowice, Lodz, Bydogoscz, Poznan and Warsaw.
We’ve been to Wroclaw too. In May 1973, sandwiched between World Cup qualifiers in Russia and France, the Irish docked ship in Wroclaw for a midweek friendly.
The team, which lost 2-0, featured Mick Lawlor, the popular Irish kit-man, in midfield.
This week is another friendly but the mood for the third Irish visit on Martin O’Neill’s watch couldn’t be more of a contrast with the other two.
For the first trip, in November 2013, there was a sense of a new beginning as O’Neill oversaw his first away game as manager.
It was a dour affair which ended 0-0 and marked the end of Sean St Ledger and Anthony Stokes, but Ireland looked sturdy and plucky.
While the next appointment, in October 2015, was a humdinger in Warsaw as Ireland chased a direct route to the finals of Euro 2016.
A 2-2 would have done the job and Ireland went so close in an open duel of cut and thrust and where star striker Robert Lewandoswki was on fire.
Trailing 2-1 late on, Aiden McGeady teed up Richard Keogh for a free header but the craggy stopper couldn’t get enough power on his effort to beat Lucasz Fabianski. On the touchline, O’Neill held his head in anguish.
Of that team, Keogh is one of the survivors and while no longer a regular starter he can expect to play tomorrow as Ireland will seek to claw back some credibility.
The patched-up squad arrived in this south-west corner of Poland, close to the borders of Germany and the Czech Republic, knowing the spotlight is on them to perform.
For the wounds inflicted by Wales last Thursday were deep and brutal. At least, this friendly gives fringe players the chance to shine and put themselves forward for consideration next month when Denmark and Wales come to Dublin in the Nations League.
O’Neill can’t afford to ignore all options as the team he placed his trust in for the last two competitive games, were simply not up to the mark.
So, who can step forward from the shadows? Enda Stevens is ready, for one. The left-back was given a cameo in Cardiff and he deserved credit for a superb relieving tackle late on which prevented 4-1 from becoming 5-1. It was a little detail which managers like to note.
‘It was a great to get on the pitch and get my first competitive cap but I’m obviously disappointed with the game, how it went, and we’ve got to try to put it right on Tuesday,’ said the Dubliner.
‘I was happy to show the manager and staff what I can do and hopefully give them a selection headache.’
‘You want to be on the pitch with the best from your country and against the best from other countries. I feel like I’m ready. But it’s about earning your chance. In previous seasons I don’t feel like I earned my chance.’
At 28, Stevens is a late bloomer at international level, but he has five years on 50-cap Stephen Ward who has had a couple or rocky games and may not be first choice for the Euro 2020 campaign which starts in March. Now a Championship regular at Sheffield United, Stevens has gradually encroached on O’Neill’s radar after rebooting a career that was stalling. ‘I was lacking confidence and drive until I went to Portsmouth (2015), got started again and thankfully I had a good manager in Paul Cook who got the best out of me. ‘Then I moved to Sheffield United and improved even more under Chris Wilder. That’s brought me up another level but I think it’s just a case of my attitude being better.’
In each of the past three seasons, Stevens played 45 games and this campaign he has been an everpresent so far for the Blades, who have won four games on the spin and sit third in the Championship.
‘Playing games has helped get the consistency I was looking for. I’d been lacking that previously and that’s helped my form.’ So what else has changed? ‘My attitude, dedicating myself to playing well for the club as hard as I can and having the hunger to win each game I play.’
Hunger is a term you rarely hear around the international set-up, but it should be there, gnawing away in the pit of the players’ stomachs.
A hunger for the jersey, a hunger for the ball, a hunger for responsibility, for leadership.
There was a marked absence of that collective hunger in Cardiff. Here, in Lower Silesia, on the banks of the river Oder, there is an opening tomorrow for players, such as Stevens, to respond.
Rarely in the colourful history of Irish visits to Poland has a friendly mattered so much.